For purist photographers, there is no alternative to the optical viewfinder. Current LED screens are, by comparison, like looking though the bottom of a bottle. But could this tiny, high-res display change that?

This new MicroOLED display, originally developed with military and medical heads-up displays in mind, can deliver a fairly impressive 5.4 megapixel (2560 x 2048) monochrome image on its 0.61-inch diagonal screen.

Obviously the resolution drops if you want more than monochrome, to just 1.3 megapixels in full 16-million color. Either way, that's pretty impressive pixel density, and that fact that it only draws 0.2 watts means it's well suited portable devices.

Can it replace the optical view finder? In honesty, most professional photographers won't be convinced to switch. But as this kind of display improves, expect to see a new generation of cameras and photographers who don't need optical view finders any more. [MicroOLED via Engadget]